Medieval is nice. Vikings are nice. Gothic is cool. But
I’ll take Romans over all of them any day of the week. I can’t tell you why Romans
speak to me more than many other great civilizations and periods in history. Maybe
it’s the togas. Maybe the Colosseum. Honestly, who wouldn’t love a culture that
had invented indoor plumbing and bath houses when much of the world was still
using the local streams?
Eboracum, as the Romans called York, was founded in 71 CE,
on land situated between the Rivers Ouse and Foss. The Ninth Legion did the
heavy lifting, and York eventually became the capital of Britannia Inferior of
the Roman Empire. The boys ruled the land until around 400 CE.
Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to go on a walking
tour “Round the Roman Fortress”, with the renowned archeologist Professor Peter
Addyman. He’s been digging things up here in York and writing about it since
the early 70’s. The walk had been organized by the York Civic Trust. York Civic Trust (along with about twenty other different
walks all lead by specialists.)
Our group was set to meet in St Samson’s Square. I had
studied my York map for two whole days before the walk. Simple: enter the
walled city of York through Monkgate Bar, walk a few blocks down Goodramgate, veer
right at King’s Square onto Church Street, which leads you right to said square.
Possibly a ten minute walk. It took me a bit longer, but at least I only had to
ask for directions one time.
With our group of about fifteen interested folks, we
gathered around Professor Addyman. He told us we were, at that very moment, standing
on top of part of the Roman Bathhouse. He pointed off in the distance and asked
us to imagine the size of a bathhouse that could serve 5000 men. It’s times
like these that I long for x-ray vision. An entire Roman garrison that housed
5000 men, lay below our feet. It boggles the mind to think about the treasures
and history right under your own two feet.
At one point I asked Professor Addyman if he had the desire
to simply start digging down to all the Roman-ness that lay beneath. Of course
he did. If I felt the frustration in not being able to look at it all, I can
just imagine what someone whose life’s work had revolved around antiquity felt
like.
We then took off and followed the Professor across the
square, down tiny streets, and in and out of the increasing mass of visitors
enjoying the sights. I thought of taking out my camera to document our
footsteps, but I did not want all the people in the shots. The plan was to go
back the following day, in the early morning, and take pictures. I did that,
but was not quite able to find all the bits we saw.
What I did find, were the markings Professor Addyman had
shown us on the street that indicated Roman walls. This was thanks to diligent
archeologists who worked with the city to ensure everyone knew where the
Fortress once stood. Actually, still stands. How did they figure it out? After
all, after the Romans came the Anglo-Saxons, followed by the Vikings, then came
Medieval times, and so on until we get to the present day tourist spot. That’s
a whole lot of years of buildings, and garbage piled one on top of another. How
they do find ancient things usually
happens when the builders come in.
Everywhere you dig deep enough in York, you’re bound to
find something other than dirt and rocks. And if you happen to be renovating a
shop, or excavating for a parking lot and run into a mysterious whatever, the
experts are called in. That’s one way they have found parts of Roman walls and
buildings.
We stopped in front of shops where the professor had been
called in during renovations. He showed us photos of what was found. In one
café, they have installed a large section of thick Plexiglas on the floor so
that you can sip coffee and gaze down onto remains of Roman structures.
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| Roman road |
On another street, where all the buildings are connected to
one another, he pointed out that one building was sinking slightly to it’s
right, while the adjoining one sunk left. That is because it is directly on top
of a Roman wall.
Several times her pointed out a slight slope in a street, that
led to a flattened area. Roman walls again. Roman concrete does not sink.
On either side Monkgate Bar, (one of the entrances to the
walled city of York that still stands), one can climb up stone steps and walk
the wall. Down at street level, there is a secret, locked plywood door next to
the steps. The professor had the key and led us in to a narrow patch of
overgrown thistles and grass. What we now stood in front of was the longest
standing exposed Roman wall in the country. (if I make historical mistakes, it’s
because I did not take notes….unlike a fellow adventurer who wrote down
everything in a small notebook.) And down at the bottom of this wall was the actual
stamp of the Roman journeyman who had help build it a few thousand years before.
The Minster, the massive Medieval cathedral, sits atop the
Roman Legion’s headquarters. It was in the courtyard in front that Constantine
was proclaimed emperor in 306 CE. It is marked by a rather dashing bronze sculpture
of the emperor, for which the sculptor may have taken a bit of artistic license.
Professor Addyman related the story of when he saw the artist’s model for the
sculpture. He noted that the sword was incorrect; that Roman swords did not
have the cross-piece guard on the hilt. He assured the artist that Roman swords
only employed a round ball at the gripped end. All the same, it is quite
lovely.
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| Constantine the Great |
It truly was a fabulous walk. And again I asked myself why I
had not gone into archeology. I suppose I might never have been able to decide
which culture I would want to explore every day for the rest of my life. Would
it be the Romans? Or maybe the Egyptians? Very possibly the Mayans.
